As I was working on my book about my nomadic hippie childhood, I unearthed a travel journal that covered two trips to ...

This page is having a slideshow that uses Javascript. Your browser either doesn't support Javascript or you have it turned off. To see this page as it is meant to appear please use a Javascript enabled browser.

editor’s note: The following article is the work of a new People’s Guide contributor, Jeanine Kitchel, who writes about Mexico, the Maya, and the Yucatan.

In this year of the Maya, the obsession has been all about the Maya calendar and the media frenzy over the end date of their Long Count on December 21, 2012.

But obscured beneath this much-hyped date is the core of Maya brilliance: their unfailing ability to accurately chronicle, assimilate, and compute the calculations of eclipses, lunation, and rotation cycles.

Mayan astrologer

The Maya were all about the sun, moon and the stars. Each major site had an observatory, and through the three remaining pre-Columbian codices (paperbark books) that survived the conquest, it’s known that astronomical calculations were their strong suit. But why was the sky so all-important to the ancient Maya?

The three codices, known for the cities in which they surfaced–Paris, Dresden and Madrid—may shed some light here. The Dresden Codex –-a 78-page, three-and-a-half meter long accordion fold book made of fig bark—is comprised of astronomical tables of astounding accuracy. It’s most famous for its lunar series and Venus table. The lunar series has intervals correlating to eclipses, and the Venus table correlates with apparent movements of the planet. The codex also contains astronomical and astrological data and ritual schedules.

But why were these cycles important to the Maya astronomers? Let’s begin with ritual. The Madrid Codex details what the Spanish priests called debt payment. This book shows the divine procedure connected with the appropriate timing of rituals during which offerings were paid as debts to gods and ancestors to keep the world in harmony. Through successful payments, much would be given: rain and success in battle.

Venus was important to the Maya, who associated the planet with war. The Maya used Venus to determine favorable times for coronations and wars. Venus was depicted as ‘defeating’ the sun and moon because of its visibility both day and night. Due to this it became known as both morning and evening star.

Archeologist David Stuart, author of The Order of Days, states that information presented in the Dresden Codex’s Venus tables is not just observed data, but approximations of astronomical data that’s been tweaked to conform to other ritual cycles. Many of the numbers were not accurate depictions but contrived numbers meant to show ways the movement of the planet could conform to other cycles and important numbers.

These cycles were then modified by Maya astronomers to merge with other cycles that would accommodate different types of heavenly phenomena, using Venus as a “frame of reference to represent a certain elegant, even if somewhat forced, symmetry in the skies.”

In other words, the ancient Maya cooked the books to craft a majestic purpose to the night sky. Even in this grand display of Maya astronomical ability, we see how the movement of the planets was meaningful only when contextualized in a larger cosmos of gods and numbers.

Stuart’s research shows that not only were the Maya obsessed with time, the planets and the stars, but they used time as a tool to control their destiny, as required by their lords and rulers. And through their ability to seemingly control astral movements, they created a civilization that reigned over Mesoamerica for nearly 1500 years.

Although their reign was not as peaceful as originally thought, it was a civilization that excelled in one of the highest forms of culture, not just in North America, but throughout the world.

And maybe, just maybe, it all came down to their ability to depict—and manipulate—the night sky.

editor’s note: If you want to know more about how the Maya elite used astrology to manipulate the masses, visit the archive at KUNM and enter “July 14” and “8:30 PM” for a great interview with the author, Jeanine Kitchel. Or you can check out her new nonfiction book “Maya 2012 Revealed, Demystifying the Prophecy”. (I am in the process of reading it, so more on that later.)

“Maya 2012 Revealed, Demystifying the Prophecy” investigates both sides of the 2012 end date debate and is available in paperback and e-book on Amazon.com, iTunes and Nook. Kitchel’s first book, a travel memoir, Where the Sky isBorn: Living in the Land of the Maya, is also available at Amazon.com, iTunes and Nook or can be accessed through her website: www.jeaninekitchel.com

Thanks for a great read. I find it utterly fascinating how the Maya not only survived but thrived for a time in Yucatan and the rain forests of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. I’ve casually picked up some books and thumbed through them about the Maya but I guess I need a starter’s guide; something that attempts to cover the entire history in layman’s terms. When I saw my first “undiscovered” mound in the rainforest of Northern Guatemala after a five hour ride on horse back I realized that Mayan history was woefully absent then (almost 30 years ago). We found widely scattered stalks of volunteer corn (minus the ears) that somehow made it through hundreds and hundreds of years of self perpetuation. What amazed me most I think is the apparent lack of passed-on history within the indigenous. They treat the ruins like they were built by Martians. Again, thanks Ms. Kitchel!

Thank you. Sorry to self-promote, but Maya 2012 Revealed has been billed as a good condensation of volumes of research (by Yucatan Today). As a journalist and former expat bookstore owner in Maya Mexico, I had to step up to the plate and bring a realistic tone to the 2012 end date debate,but only after I gave an overview of the Maya, breaking the code, Maya astronomy, the collapse, and the prophecy. I love the history of Mexico and especially Maya Mexico. There’s a ton of stuff to read out there. Your horseback ride into a Maya site sounds fantastic.